Team Two Gaiden
by Tubbyman
Summary: Injured in combat, Konoha Jounin Shinreigaku Jinsoku decides to take a team of Genin while he recovers. This is the story of those students.
1. Chapter 1

**Naruto is own by Masashi Kishimoto and his staff and his editors and his publishers and the million other people who have a hand in it. For the record, we are not of that type. Of person I mean. Meaning we don't own it, so don't sue us. Aojori, Onryuuden, Juuki and Jinsoku are OCs, but everything else comes from the Naruto canon. The fic is co written by myself and my sister, which accounts for the different styles. Names are in the Japanese styling, meaning that family names come first and individual names come second (Ex: Uzumaki Naruto instead of Naruto Uzumaki).**

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The war with the Cloud was already getting bloody. It hadn't been all that long since the conflict began, and already it had claimed casualties that had hit Shinreigaku Jinsoku very hard. The eighteen year old had formed fast friendships with many of his fellow Konoha shinobi over his eight years as a Jounin, and a lot of them had died in the initial bouts of the fighting. More had died in the years that had passed since then. As the Jounin leapt through the high branches of Konoha's forest, he struggled with those feelings once more, for another set of precious friends had just become lost to him.

The enemy's trap had been perfect. In most situations, a single such trap would do, but these enemies seemed to know this group's talents well. First had come an area trap, a ring of explosive tags set to be triggered when the Jounin entered the area. That one had been easy enough to avoid. The second had been triggered when they moved into that ring after the tags had been disarmed. Kunai flung at them from spring-loaded devices set up in the trees. Again, it was an easily avoided trap, but that had only been a setup. The real trap was sprung by another four man cell, laying in wait for Jinsoku's team. Their objective: stop the leaf Shinobi from returning to the main camp with the intelligence they'd collected.

They had known all to well that Jinsoku and his comrades were not ones so easily defeated as to simply step into a trap and be done with their lives. Those traps had been set just to lure the four into position. The real attack came from four Jutsus of four different element types: lightning from above, water from below, fire from the right and wind from the left. They had nowhere to dodge this time, and despite activating defensive Jutsus, two of the team members had been killed immediately. Jinsoku and one other had been left standing after the initial onslaught, and only Jinsoku himself had remained completely unscathed.

The Jounin had been quick to strike back. His hand seals formed quickly, ending in the sign of the Bird. "Fuuton," he called out, "Grand Tornado Jutsu!" At that, a massive whirlwind had appeared on the scene, twisting and swirling about, attacking the enemies that had so easily cornered them in a huge gust of wind. Using the opportune distraction, Jinsoku had grabbed the last remaining teammate in his group, flinging his injured body over his shoulder and escaping the scene. A Kunai that soared toward him as he leaped away found its mark in a wooden stump, a result of his quick Body Replacement Technique. With that, he was in the clear despite impossible odds.

He didn't bother to stay in one place, but instead started running straight off. He didn't expect this escape to be an easy one, but he had a comrade to protect and, if he could, a mission to salvage. Keeping his eyes wide open, the gray-robed ninja had sprung quickly through the trees, heading back toward the main Konoha forces. There, he would be able to take refuge from these ninjas and, more importantly, get his friend the healing she desperately needed. There would be no surprises when enemies appeared, for Jinsoku was expecting to see a good couple of ambushes on his way back to headquarters this night.

The first of said enemies appeared in a sneak attack, with an enemy springing up out of the ground and gripping Jinsoku by the ankle. Jinsoku responded by tossing his friend forward, his stomach slumping over a single tree branch. That allowed him to focus all of his attention on the attacker. That was when the real fight started. Jinsoku was smashed into the ground face-first by the attacker, but that blow wouldn't go unanswered. He made his hand seals quickly even as he flipped over the spot he'd rebounded up from, slipping out of the attacker's grip in the same motion. He didn't say the name of this jutsu aloud, but when the Chakra-made sword slid down toward his feet, the attacker got what his evasion pattern: He jumped back into the tree branches. However, this was falling into Jinsoku's trap perfectly. He never saw the ninty-nine other swords that were approaching from behind him. 'Chigatana:', Jinsoku thought, 'Rain of One Hundred Swords.' Pierced by every one of the attacks which had been intended to hit, the attacker fell forward from his tree-branch perch, falling lifelessly to the ground as the chakra swords disappeared.

The second attacker surprised him. He had let down his guard, thinking that the enemies in the area were now defeated, but that was not the case at all. It became apparent as a Kunai streaked straight for him, imbedding itself deeply in his knee. "Gaah!" Jinsoku cried as he fell to his back. He quickly sat himself up to examine the wound quickly. It wasn't looking good. Not only was it bleeding, but a thick, clear liquid was oozing out of it. 'Poison?' Jinsoku wondered as he pulled the kunai out. He tore off a large strip of his robes, banding up the wound to try and prevent any further bleeding. 'I'll have to see a medic-nin as soon as possible,' he thought.

That was when he started to wonder. Why hadn't his attacker thrown more Kunai at him? It took him a while to realize why he wasn't dead yet. Another battle had started, one so silent that Jinsoku hadn't even noticed it was happening until he had started looking for it. That was the way of Shinobi, though. They could be raging a battle all about you and you wouldn't even see it, unless they wanted you to. The second attacker was in a fight with somebody else… but who? He lost the time to ask himself that as another Shinobi, this one wearing a Konoha head protector, jumped down beside him. Jinsoku didn't recognize him, but he was carrying the other of his fallen teammates over his shoulder.

"Jinsoku-sama," the man asked, "Can you move?" He thought about that for a while, trying to move around his knee a bit.

"I'm not sure. That last opponent might have poisoned me, too, but I'm not feeling any of its affects yet."

The subordinate nodded, taking Jinsoku by the waist and helping him up. "Come on, I'll help you walk. We have to escape quickly." With a nod, the Shinreigaku struggled on one foot, using the support of his fellow Konoha shinobi to the fullest.

That was the memory that had come to Jinsoku in his dreams that night. He didn't say anything aloud, but he remembered what had happened in the couple of days since then. Upon examination, a medic-nin had revealed that the thick, clear substance that had been oozing out of Jinsoku's knee had not been poison at all, but his own joint fluid. His kneecap had also been shattered, and it had only been his own mental fortitude that had allowed him to continue the mission through that pain at all. He wouldn't be able to use that knee for a long while now. They had put his leg in a cast and given him crutches to walk on. Still, at least the mission had been completed, and though two of his teammates had died, the reinforcements sent to back him up had been able to retrieve the body. With the intelligence they had gathered, the Leaf would soon be able to launch a strong counter-attack against Cloud. Despite that, though, two of Jinsoku's comrades had died. He wouldn't have considered the mission an actual success because of that alone.

Upon his return to the village, he had been immediately debriefed by the Fourth personally. During the debriefing, he practically begged to somehow stay involved with the war effort despite his injury. Much to his own surprise, the Fourth had not been opposed to the idea. In fact, he had encouraged it. Although it was true that he could no longer take on dangerous missions like the one he had just come from, that didn't mean he couldn't still serve Konoha in its war against the Cloud. He was assigned to a team of Genin just graduating from the academy. By the time they were Chuunin, Jinsoku would be completely healed and had enough surplus time to get his injured leg back into shape. At the time, Jinsoku had thought it a perfect solution, but now that he was getting ready to meet the Genin for the first time, he couldn't deny being a little bit unsure…


	2. Chapter 2: Team Two

**B: Some of you more Japanese-savvy people will notice a few things that are symbolic in the names of characters. For instance, when I thought up the character of Jinsoku, I wanted him to be a person who decided his battles in a few swift blows. His name, "Jinsoku," which means "Quick and Decisive," reflects this. However, Shinreigaku, his clan name, doesn't actually mean anything.**

**S: This fic was a collaboration of two people, one who is codenamed B, and one who is codenamed S. Together, we are team BS! Make of that what you will. The + sign signifies a change in the writer and characters. I know that Aojiro's name was typo'd in the first disclaimer, but whatever. FYI, Aojiro is mine, and Jinsoku and Onryuuden are B's. Anyway, here's the second chapter of Team Two Gaiden: Team Two.  
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"$&# that," Aojiro said, standing at the top of the stairs in the classroom, watching the three other genin-to-be crash down the steps from a swift, backhanded knuckle punch across their faces and necks. The students closest to her who had been silently watching their exchange stood and backed away, fear and surprise showing in their eyes. The excited conversations around the room snuffed out immediately and all faces turned to the three downed students, laying at the base of the steps.

"What the heck was that for!?" One of the beaten cried, standing quickly and holding up a fist, one eye partially closed from where she's struck him. "You just said you liked me!"

"Just because I said I liked you doesn't mean I wouldn't kill you," she growled, displaying the blood on the back of her hand for everyone to see. She wiped it off on the shoulder of her uniform as if she was shining her nails, pink eyes wide and intense. As she stepped to the far corner of the highest row in the class, the iridescent black and burgundy centipede, hidden beneath the tall reinforced collar of her uniform, tightened around her neck and hissed amusedly, his many legs scratching against her collarbone.

"_I felt that concussion,"_ Kouhaku purred in her mind. "_It must have hurt."_

"Greatly," she replied softly, brushing a few loose strands of her white, mid-back braid behind her equally-pale ear and resting her head on her chin as the other two students picked themselves up and the conversation of the room slowly returned to normal. "I was a second from having a shuriken between my fingers, but decided against it."

Dull eyes peered up from the deskside seat as the student sitting there looked on. The girl next to him had just stood up and backfisted a trio of other students, sending them sprawling to the ground. A sigh escaped his lips as he uncaringly watched the dialogue that subsequently occurred between the two. "What a pain," he muttered as the boys went back to their seats. He almost called over his shoulder, 'Hey, she really would have killed you,' but decided against it, since the ensuing throwing of insults would have been too pointless for words. He merely sighed a second time as he lowered his head back onto the arms that were waiting to be his pillow on the desk.

"You really need to learn how to calm down," the child stated. His glazed-over eyes drifted off toward the door, waiting for somebody – _anybody_ – to come through it. He was a good enough Shinobi when he was doing something constructive, but when he had to just sit around and be bored… That was the kind of stuff he hated. And right now was exactly one of those times. Everybody in this room had already graduated from the academy. Now it was just a matter of having to wait…. And wait… and wait… until, finally, their instructors came through the door.

He became instantly more attentive as the door opened up. He sat up in his chair, his glazed eyes suddenly lighting up with energy and excitement. He had a small smile on his face, eagerly looking to the portal for the first sign of their master. A red vest unwrinkled itself as the formfitting ice-blue undershirt beneath it, the sleeves of which came all the way down to his wrists, followed his arm's movement, supporting his weight as he rose. Plain red pants, which extended to just above his knees, also straightened out as the same blue undersuit flexed with his legs. A full head of offensively blue hair spiked up atop his head, matching the color of his eyes, undersuit and the blue pendant he wore around his neck. As he rose to his full height, a single uttering escaped his lips. "Son of a #&%*%..."

The person who had just walked through the door was, in fact, not their instructor. This person was a Konoha Jounin wearing the typical suit and vest, whereas he knew that their own teacher would be wearing the long and flowing robes of the Shinreigaku clan. Disappointedly, Iwate Onryuuden sat himself back down in his seat, crossing his arms on his desk and lowering his head onto them. "What a pain," he said frustratedly, for he was past ready to go out and do something.

Aojiro opened one eye and peered through her fingers at the genin-to-be next to her, grinning behind her hand.

"I calm down well," she stated. "I just get riled up well, too."

The Jounin teacher who had stepped into the room took a glance around, noticing the red marks and bloodied lips of the students in the front row.

"Was there a fight?" he asked sternly, sounding like he was ready to open a can of discipline on the whole class.

"Not really," one of the beaten genin said, wiping at his lip and sounding dejected. The Jounin teacher sighed, and then announced into the room, "Team Six, come with me!"

A brown-haired girl in the upper rows jumped, and stood quickly, shuffling past the others seated by her as the boy with the bloody lip looked up in surprise, then at the boy next to him. They stood together and began to follow the Jounin out of the room. The boy with the bloodied lip paused as his two teammates exited the room, and glanced back at Aojiro.

"Well, looks like I'm first again-" he began smugly, then ducked a swift-flying binder as it crashed into the doorframe above his head.

"Get yo' ass out the damn room!" Aojiro snarled, one arm pulled across her chest with the hand, holding three sharpened pencils between the fingers, hidden behind her head in throwing position. The boy ducked out hurriedly, and Aojiro sat back down, rolling the three pencils down the desk and again propping her head on her hand, making the long, loose grey sleeve fall down to show more of her alabaster forearm. Cinched with a dark belt at the elbow, waist and high on the neck beneath her chin, her grey jacket was fairly loose and covered with pockets, as was the long, drab grey pants that tucked into her thick leather, metal-rimmed boots, also cinched at the knee.

"The sooner we get out of here, the better it will be for everyone else," she said to Kouhaku, and the students in the row in front of her shifted uncomfortably as she seemingly spoke to herself again.

The sigh that escaped Onryuuden's lips was heavier than usual this time. He couldn't help but be reminded, as the binder flew through the air and into the door frame, that all they were doing at this point was waiting. He had never been good at that. Of course, you never would've been able to tell from his seemingly infinite patience on a mission. If he were _hiding_ from something, he could wait in one spot forever, but this was just a matter of having to bare with it until the stupid Jounin that was leading their stupid team to walk through that stupid door.

Finally, he'd had enough. "That's it," he said, once again standing to his full height. "If our lazy instructor can't seem to get here on his own, then I'm going to go find him and drag him here!" Before long, he was around the desk and headed for the door. It was true, only one instructor had shown up thus far to pick up their Genin team, but that was one too many to beat Onryuuden into action. It was at that perfectly timed moment that the door opened, and through it, a man in flowing, bluish-gray robes stepped through. His mouth open in anticipation, he at first looked fairly impressed by the one who would shortly become their teacher…

And then he saw the crutches. "What is this!?" he asked, though he hadn't meant to actually say it out loud. What kind of Genin team got a cripple assigned to be their Jounin leader!? It infuriated him. Here he was thinking he would be getting a lot of fast-paced, action-packed missions on account of the war, but as it turned out, the teacher who was usually in the lead would be the one slowing the team down. Instantly, it made Onryuuden furious to the point where he was no longer seeing in colors other than red.

If there was one thing he knew how to do, though, it was playing nice. He kept his cool after his initial outburst. The teacher would probably be wondering at this point how he had known in that instance that he was to be the teachers; most students didn't know that kind of information until they actually met their new instructors. However, Onryuuden had never been somebody who could sit still unless there was a purpose behind it, so he had gone out to do a bit of information gathering. It was completely by accident that he wound up actually finding what he had set out to discover, which made it something completely out of the norm for him, but he had eventually determined that team two's teacher would be Shinreigaku Jinsoku…

The same Shinreigaku Jinsoku who now stood before them, looking quite quizzically at the young boy. "Uh…" he muttered, "Right. Team two?" he asked. Already standing before him, Onryuuden was relieved, at least, that he didn't have to get up and awkwardly walk toward this cripple.

"_Team two, did you hear that?"_ Kouhaku crawled down her shoulder and across her stomach, hidden beneath the loose folds of thick cloth, into her navel. She automatically sucked her gut up at the sensation of him crawling into her navel through a channel that led into an extra, hollow bony cavity behind her sternum where he would be protected, little barbed legs plucking at her soft tissue before they caught on the rougher bone. _"Let's go,"_ he communicated to her from his new position, and she felt him roll into a ball against her ribs as she stood.

"Coming," she said, both to him and to the new sensei, and eyed his crutches as she descended the stairs, ignoring the other students who watched her pass nervously. _"Lame?" _Kouhaku said doubtfully, chitinous carapace ticking against her bone as he twisted contemplatively. _There must be a reason for this, so I won't worry; a Jounin is a Jounin,_ Aojiro thought, but unlike her centipede, her thoughts stayed in her head. She took in the Jounin's apparel as she approached, and noticed the musculature in the lame leg; he must not have been out of commission for too long, or the muscle would have begun to atrophy.

"_Oooh, he smells nice,"_ Kouhaku chirped, and Aojiro was proud of herself for keeping a straight face, smiling and making direct eye contact with the man as she came even with Onryuuden.

The third team member to get up was a timid little boy in the back row. Physically speaking, he was shorter and much smaller than his contemporaries. He wore thick glasses and had simple, left-alone hair, wearing unassuming and plain clothing over his tiny body. His forehead protector was worn in the traditional method, straight across his forehead and tied up in the back. From what Onryuuden knew about him, he was a pretty shy guy who didn't answer questions in class, but still got good scores on his tests. He had obtained a basic mastery of the Henge no Jutsu – that is, the transformation technique, after only basic instruction in its use. Still, with his personality, Onryuuden couldn't help but think of him as an average Ninja.

With the third and final member of Team Two now accompanying them, the Jounin at the head of the group slowly turned around. He wasn't used to his crutches yet, so it took him a bit of time to turn himself about. "With me. We're going to training facility #6," he stated simply, and he limped out of the room. Onryuuden followed immediately behind him, arms folded across his chest and a disgruntled look in his eyes. The shy student lagged slightly behind Onryuuden, taking up his wake as a sheep following the flock.

"_He's nice from this angle, too, isn't he?"_ Kouhaku chuckled in her brain, and she thumped herself on the chest, rattling his cage. "Shut up," she muttered quietly, but was aware of the Jounin stalling slightly, and of the shy teammate, Gingitsune Juuki, glancing at her oddly. Onryuuden just sighed again, and shook his blue head. Already feeling sulky and judged, Aojiro hunched and listened to Kouhaku contentedly click around in her sternum, alternately gnawing and licking his many legs like some freakish, tiny dog, and just generally rolling around in active boredom. Distracted by her busy arthropod and the raps against her sternum, she tuned out her team for a moment to cough once, jarringly, shaking the centipede into complacent stillness. She saw Juuki give her another concerned look as they followed their new, limping sensei rather slowly from the building. He looked away from her, radiating insecurity, and stared at Onryuuden for a moment, probably trying to gauge from his expression how friendly he was going to be.

Apparently, the silence became too much for him, and he stuttered, "W-where are we going again?"

"Training Facility #6," the sensei replied without slowing down or looking back.

"That's kind of far, isn't it? I mean-" he stopped suddenly, and bit his lower lip, obviously afraid that he'd offended his brand new teacher by calling out his injury.

"Yes," the teacher said levelly, continuing to walk.

Training Facility #6 was near the edge of town and shared the same cliff face as the stone faces of the Hokages, but at the far edge. The new team remained in awkward silence as they approached it. Consisting of a grassy field with a single square building in the center, like an above-ground bunker, the training building itself looked as if it could house perhaps a dozen people during training but even it was shadowed by the sheer, rough, grass-topped cliff face behind it.

Jinsoku was surprisingly quick to climb up the incline that led to the structure's interior, stopping at the doorway and turning himself about. He made a slow motion in taking his right crutch and leaning it against the doorway. With that free hand, he dug around in the folds of his outer cloak. His hand returned to general view with three pieces of paper. Holding them out, he simply prompted, "Take one of these slips of paper each." As the three Genin hopefuls came up to take their sheets of paper, Jinsoku began his little speech.

"You may think that you're really ninjas now," he began, "But this is not the case. By graduating from the academy, all you've proven is that you're not completely hopeless. Of the academy graduates, about two thirds are sent back to the academy for further training. In order to prove that you are not one of those who are not ready to be Ninjas, you still have to pass my test. This, we will begin with now. Make no mistake. The fate of your career as a future shinobi rests squarely in my hands now.

"For this exercise, there is a lesson you must be given first. What you have used up to now is simple, basic Chakra manipulation. You should know from your academy studies how chakra is molded from physical stamina and mental energy. What you probably didn't learn is that most Shinobi aren't limited to using this basic level of Chakra manipulation. You may have heard of different types of elemental jutsus over the course of your training. These are able to be used only by people with an elemental chakra nature of the same element.

"Now, let's break that down to the basic level and start re-building it from there. There are five basic elements of jutsus: Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Lightning. Generally speaking, every Shinobi is aligned with one or two of these elements. This is also reflected in the Shinobi's Chakra. That is where Chakra natures come from. For instance, a person who is more aligned with the Earth element will have an Earth chakra nature, and so on. If you have a certain type of Chakra nature, then that means that you'll be able to use Jutsus of that element. For instance, if somebody had a Fire Chakra nature, they could use Fire type jutsus, but if they tried to use Earth or Water type jutsus, they would be unable to do so.

"Most people have two different Chakra natures. However, we're not going to be concerned with the more complicated nature of those things. What's important to understand is that one of those elemental natures tends to be stronger than the other. This is called your primary Chakra nature. Today, that's all you need to focus on.

"Take note of the slips of paper I gave you. Those are special pieces of paper that can reveal your primary Chakra nature to you. Channel your Chakra into those slips of paper and see what happens. If the paper starts to burn, that means your primary nature is Fire. If it turns to dust, your primary nature is Earth. If it gets soggy, that means your primary nature is Water. If it splits in half, your primary nature is Wind. If it crumples up, your primary nature is Lightning.

"Keeping that in mind, the following is the exercise you will carry out to prove yourselves to me. First, you will focus your energy into those slips of paper. Then, you will go out into the village and gather as much information as you can about your primary chakra nature. When you have found out all that you can, you will come back to this spot and report your findings to me. The time limit is one hour. Are there any questions?"

The Jounin looked around to his new students. He didn't see any of them raising their hands to ask him questions, so he assumed that meant they had none. With a contented smile, Jinsoku give a single nod. "Very good then. Go!" he commanded. The mission was on.

Examining the square sheaf of paper she'd been handed, Aojiro flipped it over to inspect both sides as her sensei spoke, and gave her Jounin sensei a cryptic glance out of the corner of her eye. They'd been taught about Chakra natures in class, but their teacher had specifically stated that they probably wouldn't have the skill to use them until they were mid-experience Chuunin at the earliest, and not to worry about it. She almost pointed this out to him, but she decided that, as a Jounin himself, he probably knew better than their teacher had. Looking back and forth to her teammates and Kouhaku slithered back into the flesh of her abdomen, crawling out of her navel and encircling her waist. _"I wish I could come out and see what you are doing," _he spoke to her. _"Where we are now, reading your mind is difficult."_ Aojiro ignored him, watching the two boys focusing on their papers before she did anything with hers. As she looked to Juuki, she saw his eyes narrow in concentration, and his paper suddenly spit cleanly in half, making him jump and then grin.

"Ha!" he said gleefully. "Wind!" As he spoke, the paper suddenly exploded in flame in his hand, and he dropped it with a squeal, then stomped on it. Juuki's black eyes widened, and he looked up at their sensei as if he expected to be in trouble, but Jinsoku only grinned.

"That actually makes me very happy," he said. "It tells me that you have two natures of equal strength, fire and wind, and wind- even by itself- is fairly rare."

Juuki's smile widened; his bright face turned to Aojiro and Onryuuden, and immediately his enthused grin faded. Aojiro was looking at him like a snake that had crawled out of a bush on the other side of a street, and Onryuuden was sourly glaring at him.

The blue-haired Genin looked down toward his sheet of paper with the same disgusted look, grumbling angry nonsense under his breath. 'Bet he thinks he's all cool now,' he thought. 'I'll show 'em. I bet I get at least three natures!' He was being childish, and he wasn't really justified in it, but he really didn't want to lose to this geeky shy kid from the back of the class. 'All right, here I go!' With that, he focused on molding Chakra, channeling it through his hand and into the paper. At first, the anticipation was almost too much to bare. What was he going to get? Lightning and Earth? That would be a cool combination, for sure!

Dripping wet, the soggy paper flopped over onto his thumb. Even though he kept channeling Chakra into it for several more moments, it did nothing.

"What the crap!?" Onryuuden spat, frustrated. Water? Seriously, his elemental chakra nature was water? He was definitely cool enough to be at least a lightning! "Tch," he said, disgustedly throwing the wet card to the ground. "Well…" he started, but he couldn't think of anything to say for several seconds. "I bet I'll be back here the fastest, then!" he said, and with that he took off at a sprint. Headed back toward the town with determination in his heart, Onryuuden was intent on beating Juuki in the Gathering Information contest.

"_That was amazing,"_ Kouhaku chuckled, and Aojiro watched him go with a grin. "Yeah," she agreed. "_Not_ a serene guy."

"Hey, wait!" Juuki said, making to follow Onryuuden, then paused and turned back to Jinsoku. "Does this mean that we passed the first part of the test?" he asked shyly.

"You two did," Jinsoku replied, and Juuki smiled and ran after his teammate, waving a farewell over his shoulder. That left the tall albino spook and the crippled Jounin facing each other in silence, Aojiro holding up her paper and staring at it like a dubious flake of tofu. She focused on the thin, parchment-like feel of the paper, and then on her chakra circulatory system, molding chakra in her fingers and pushing it into the paper. Absolutely nothing happened, and the seconds stretched out intolerably. Just as she was about to ask if it was possible for someone to not have an element nature at all the paper began shortening from the top down. She narrowed her eyes, following a trail of dust falling from the paper, and felt relieved.

"It's earth nature if it crumbles, right?" she asked, even though she knew the answer, and saw him nod.

"Very subtle, but earth," he replied, and as her expression soured, he added, "But subtle is not necessarily a bad thing." He straightened up against the wall of the complex. "That finishes up the first part of my exam for you. Go."

Aojiro nodded, then asked, "Would it be ok if I asked _you_ directly for the information I need?"

The sensei smiled, but shook his head. "You have to get it yourself, but that was an intelligent question."

"Ok," she said, watching the paper finally disintegrate in her hand, and wandered off in a different direction from her teammates. She heard him shift and he called out, "By the way, who have you been talking to?"

"Oh, nobody," she returned, waving over her shoulder. "Later, Sir Cripple."

"O- oy! S… what?" she heard him stutter in surprise, then he sighed, and she stooped quickly to pick up a clod of clay from the ground. _Earth, huh?_ She spied the two other members of her team moving across the field, Onryuuden making haste for the town and Juuki now walking after him, posture visibly discouraged even from the distance. Before she really thought about what she was doing, Aojiro felt her arm flex and she was stepping into a powerful throw, arm shooting past her head as the clod of soil sailed upwards and seemed to hang and shrink against the blue and white sky for a moment. Far in the distance, just as he neared the outer wall, she saw Onryuuden's head snap down and he tripped, landing on his scalp in the dirt and almost flipping over with his momentum as the clod of clay struck him in the back of the neck.

"Doton: Art of Throwing Rocks," she muttered under her breath, watching Juuki pick up his pace to run to his fallen comrade, and both of them- human and anthropod- chuckled as they took the long way around to town, following the curving base of the sheer cliff. _"The public library has information on nature affinity,"_ Kouhaku suggested, and Aojiro stifled a yawn, kicking through the tall grass outside Konoha. "So do ninja," she replied, watching the distant Onryuuden pick himself off the ground and stoop, probably examining the shattered clay glob and Juuki reached him. "Maybe I'll ask the Fourth." Kouhaku scurried across her stomach, beneath the belt around her waist, and out of her uniform, racing across the front of her shirt to stick his head in her face.

"_He thinks I'm a PET!"_ Kouhaku emitted furiously, iridescent black and burgundy segmented body gleaming in the sun, long furry antenna flicking across her face, massive black pincer fangs flexing as he swayed. She stopped, glaring right back at the massive bug, then gripped him around the middle of his body and pulled him off with a sound like canvas ripping, dropping the creature onto the ground. As long as her forearm and hand but about half as thick, Kouhaku was larger than any normal centipede, and had no qualms about eating his smaller kin; like all of his kind, however, bright light and exposure were offensive to him, and he quickly scurried to her pant leg, emitting disgruntled pheromones as he squeezed beneath the belt around her waist and again wrapped himself around her collar.

"_I was just trying to say-" _he began as she continued walking, and she snorted. "Whatever. Juuki's most likely going to try to follow Onryuuden around, and he'll get competitive and ruin it for both of them, so I'll not be anywhere near them since the shrimp will try to cling to me after he gets rejected by blue-boy. I'll go ask a ninja."

"_If in doubt, ask a ninja," _Kouhaku agreed, and she meandered back towards the town, wondering at how they were going to survive such a bizarre team.

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**B: I'm eager to write Onryuuden's reaction the first time he sees that centipede o.0**

**S: Yeah. Hehe, Aojiro's such a hypocrite. The team's only bizarre because she's in it XD.**


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